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Steam

By Luke Sakal, 5/17/2022

Steam is known by just about everyone who has even glanced at modern PC gaming. Launched by Valve back when they still made big titles, Steam is the most dominant digital PC game store around, offering both indie games and AAA titles.

When you use Steam, it becomes clear why it has retained the industry crown, even in the face of scandals and competitors like GOG or the Epic Games Store. I myself have been a user since the day they made Team Fortress 2 free-to-play. Simpler times, then, no?

Starting up Steam will bring you to the home page, which is actually the store page. At first, it seems a bit chaotic, with words and pictures every which way. However, when you start to scan the page, you realize everything is clearly labeled. Both the navigation bars and side bar leave little room for questioning what they do. The search bar is labeled too and follows conventions with its icon and positioning.

We also see a good example of visual hierarchy. The featured and recommended products are at the top and take up a lot of room. Then the other special offers, which are less important, take up less space. The main navigation with STORE, LIBRARY, COMMUNITY, and USERNAME (redacted for my privacy) has the largest font. Unsurprisingly, these are the navigation options I tend to use the most. All of these related elements are also grouped together in clear ways.

However, Steam’s strength isn’t really in its visual design. Its strength comes from its usefulness, effectiveness, and satisfying nature.

Steam’s usefulness comes from the fact that it fulfills peoples’ wants. It provides an easy way to view, purchase, and play games digitally. This is always people to quickly get their hands and games and play them from anywhere they want. Steam also functions as a social networking platform, so you can even communicate with friends or join a community around a certain game.

Let’s say I want to check out a game to learn more about it. I might type in the name or choose it from a recommendation on the store page. From there I can get a nice, detailed page that includes trailers, images, descriptions, hardware recommendations, user reviews, DLC, and more. I’ve accomplished my goal to learn more about the game (effectiveness) and I did it all through one source.

Maybe I want to buy a game. All I do is add it to my cart and checkout with either the option to purchase the game for myself or for a friend. Checkout is very conventional and clear. I’ve bought my game and accomplished my task. Another point for Steam’s effectiveness.

If I want to play a game I own, I just head over to my library via the navigation bar and hit the play button on the game I want. Nice and simple. Another task accomplished and another point for Steam’s effectiveness. Not only that, but I’m probably satisfied. I got the game I wanted with minimal effort, and hopefully it’s good. Even if I’m not happy with the game, Steam has a simple refund process I hear.

Another useful feature of Steam is the news and updates section that can be found on the game’s library page. Having interest in some small, ongoing projects, this is a nice boon. Now I don’t have to track down a developer’s account on Twitter, or Patreon, or VK, or Weibo, or whatever.

There’s a lot of good stuff packed into the Steam client, but since this journal is already getting long, I’ll skip to the bad parts.

My biggest complaint about Steam is probably just the amount of content on every page. Often, I’ll scroll through so much stuff that my eyes will just glaze over. It’s never stopped me, or even slowed me from accomplish things, so it’s impact on effectiveness is minimal, but it does take away from a bit of that satisfaction.

Although Steam’s acceptance of small projects is great for small developers, it also leads to a whole heap of trash. The new releases category is rendered near useless due to the volume of low-quality games that pollute the listings. It’s not satisfying to scroll through 40 games when you’re just searching for a decent new release. It’s certainly not efficient in the slightest.

Purely in terms of usability, I’ve had very few issues with Steam. It’s useful, effective, and has provided a satisfying experience over the years. I do think that updates over the years have made Steam more crowded and noisier, but overall, it still works like a charm.